Archive for ART

Dali is a superb draughtsman. Some years ago I visited the Dali Universe. County Hall, London. This 3,000 square metre space housed sculptures, (1935 -1984), lithographs, drawings and wonderful furniture inspired by Dali, gold and glass objects and even copies of the famous lobster telephone and the Mae West lips sofa! There were no major paintings on display, apart from the oil he did for Hitchcock’s ‘1945 film ‘Spellbound‘. I took great delight in looking through Dali’s drawings which are simply exquisite and show not only his draughtsmanship skills, but how exacting and precise his execution of drawing was. His imagination may have been wild, but his skills struck me as very honed and precise, not something I associate with Surrealism. Surreal, I know!

Too much has been written about this famous Spanish artist: some by myself (please see my earlier birthday posts here and for further Dali eccentricities here ). Dali loved wild animals. His favorite pet was a wildcat, an Ocelot, called Babou who he would take to restaurants, tethering the animal to a table and causing alarm to fellow diners.

The surreal image below shows Dali emerging from the Paris underground taking two Anteaters for a walk (1969). Andre Breton, Founder of the Surrealist movement, (who was known as ‘le tamanoir’ – ‘the anteater’) used this image as bookplates for several books and Dali was to depict the style of the anteater in his famous 1929 painting ‘The Great Masturbator’

Dali taking a Parisian walk with his pets

One of Dali’s famous stunts was staged at London’s International Surrealist Exhibition, 1936 when he gave a lecture whilst wearing a deep-sea diving suit and very nearly suffocated. His wild exaggerated gestures were mistaken for his usual amusing form of eccentricity. Luckily for him a poet, David Gascoyne rescued Dali – with a spanner!

A mysterious fire broke out in the artist’s bedroom in 1984, fortunately Dali was rescued by a friend, Robert Descharnes. Dali was returned his beloved Figueres , Spain (his birthplace), where his friends and artists looked after him. In November 1988 he went to hospital with heart failure. On 23rd January 1989, the artist died of heart failure at the age of 84. He is buried in the crypt in his Teatro Museo in Figueres, much loved and much admired by most artists and non artists alike.

We live in the times of the Confessional. Privacy is not exclusive. Well it sort of IS actually…. You can read these ‘exclusive’ stories every day in the newspapers. It’s amazing how quickly privacy flies out of the window when the price is right…

The act of the confessing is supposed to be between God and the confessor (using the Priest as a mediator or a conduit). It seems that the act of confessing all has now become an art form, Tracey Emin is a living ambassador of the confessional art, (sometimes known as autobiographical). In order for the confession to be of any interest to the average audience though, it has to have a shock factor, an air of secrecy and exclusivity, and that is where it falls down (when it loses its exclusivity, where it’s shared among the media and therefore becomes common knowledge. That doesn’t stop people being interested in others dirty washing though!

Fly on the wall documentaries, and ‘reality’programmes like Big Brother, The Osbournes and ‘I’m a Celebrity – get me out of here!‘ now provide popular entertainment . The confessional aspect of these shows requires starstruck voyeurs to really work. – and we have become a nation of voyeurs (or ‘observers’, as we like to call ourselves). The Jeremy Kyle Show has even won an award for this abrasive style of interogation (though not much arm twisting is involved to get guests to ‘spill the beans’ or air their dirty washing) A strange camera technique is used to throw the participant’s face into hideous relief showing up each blemish, wrinkle etc. the victim is then shouted at , told to ‘grow a pair’ and sent off to a ‘good cop’ (Kyle is ‘Bad cop’) for ‘after care’

Perhaps these shows make us feel better about ourselves or maybe some of the issues they deal with (well, touch upon) actually do affect us, or we have experience of them? There’s also the added bonus whilst watching these types of shows of the realisation that things could be a lot worse in our own world. I must add though that the reverse is true for me when I watch The Antiques Road Show and see all the personal stuff people have been left and are willing to part for a few quid. Having never been left anything – and having no rich relatives so never likely to be left anything, I do confess to a feeling of envy. 😦

The act of confessing is said to have a cathartic effect: though sometimes the opposite can occur. The opening up of old wounds, the telling of secrets: especially when these ‘secrets’ hurt or effect others lives.

Many agree that the original founder of Confessional art is the French American artist and sculptor Louise Bourgeois (b 1911 – 2010) . In this interview (celebrating her 70th birthday and her Retrospective) she revealed that her sculptures are mostly self confessional, and that the materials used are personal and symbolic to her and represent parts of her personal life that she felt she needed to ‘explain’ or come to terms with. There’s a great article about this here

Here’s some quotes by the great sculptress;-

I’m neither a preacher nor a teacher.”

“If the artwork is true, then it will communicate and have value to others.”

“Trust yourself. In your art you must tell your own story and if you tell your own story, you will be interesting.”

“My art is a form of psychoanalysis. I was able to exorcise my demons through art.”

Artist Tracey Emin’s is a story-teller. Her art is a dichotomy. On the one hand, it is very self absorbed – all about herself and her experiences – yet it reaches out through its narrative and we become absorbed in it through the artist’s way of communication, which is very powerful.

Roberta Smith of The New Yorker says the following about Tracey’s work:

“If Tracey Emin could sing, she might be Judy Garland, a bundle of irresistible, pathetic, ferocious, self-indulgent, brilliant energy. Since she can’t, or doesn’t, she writes, incorporating autobiographical texts and statements into drawings, monoprints, watercolors, collages, quilts, neon sculptures, installations and videotapes. In her art she tells all, all the truths, both awful and wonderful, but mostly awful, about her life. Physical and psychic pain in the form of rejection, incest, rape, abortion and sex with strangers figure in this tale, as do love, passion and joy.”

The art of the confessional is here to stay – both in the art world and the media. People will always want to read all about it in Heat magazine or biographys. Anyone can do it – just make sure you get your story straight……. and don’t tell everything….. leave that for your next book.

I have not featured any jewellery on Echostains for quite a while. I have been looking for something really unusual – something that can inspire me into flights of fancy. I am writing this on the birthdate of the Faberge egg (29th May 1885 – 1917) The Faberge egg is instantly recognisable – sumptuous, bejewelled and opulent. The eggs were developed by the House of Faberge (1885 – 1917) in Russia and the miniature eggs were Easter gifts, that were given singly or were worn on a neck chain.

The Karelian egg

The larger more famous eggs (also known as the ‘imperial’ eggs) were originally made for Alexander 111 and Nicholas 11 of Russia. Only 50 of these eggs were made, and 42 have survived.

The Karelian and Constellation eggs, planned for 1918 were destined never to be delivered. Nicholas 11 and his whole family died in an assasination that year and the year before Nicholas had abdicated. The eggs themselves are gorgeous, opulent and seen as a symbol of luxury – jewellers masterpieces. But it is not these little baubles which once hung from necklaces which caught my eye, but this strange face distorting jewelery by Burcu Buyukunal.

My first question is ‘why?’ How does this enhanse the face? By distorting her face, do we then notice how attractive the woman really is? They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, different ‘looks’ have their admirers, as do fashion, design ect. Maybe one day ‘beauty’ will be played down to be the new beauty. It is this example which reminded me of how Elizabethan ladies used to pain their faces white and how patches made of velvet were used on the face in the 18th century to disguise blemishes, make the face appear even whiter or draw attention to certain facial features.

circa 1780 patch box

‘Her patches are of every cut,
For pimples and for scars;
Here’s all the wandering planets’ signs,
And some of the fixed stars.’

In this very short video we see the owner of the painting ‘Une Dam a sa Toilette’ by French painter Francois Boucher ( 1703 – 1770) explain the delicate operation of patch application. Boucher ‘s art is known for his voluptuous and idyllic subject matter which is well suited to the Rococo style. His patroness was the famous Madame Pompadour, he painted many portraits of her.

Whirls of cigarette smoke enveloping beautiful women in black and white movies lend such mystique and intrigue to the silver screen. The actuality is rather different. Cigarette Smoke permeates everything it touches, including, flesh, clothes and hair – there’s nothing mysterious about that, but I was quite tickled about this cigarette collAr – though I think they missed a trick by not making it a prisoners or slave’s collar to emphasis the entrapment of the noxious weed. The ‘chain’ association is still there though, and there is something of the chain smoking beagle about this collar. These types of collars are not new though – the actual shape of the ruff collar goes back to the sixteenth century and was worn by men, women and children. The pleats of the ruff was accomplished by the use of cone-shaped goffering irons. which were heated. Ruffs were made from a lot of material. Elizabeth1 had a ruff of ‘ten yards for the neck and hand’. During starching, ruffs could be coloured with vegetable dyes, though Elizabeth herself disapproved of the light blue colour;-

“Her Majesty’s pleasure is that no blue starch shall be used or worn by any of her Majesty’s subjects, since blue was the color of the flag of Scotland”

Stiff collars, smooth complextions, disguises used as enhancements – beauty will always be subjective and is indeed in the eye of the beholder.

On 27th December 2011, the death of New York Abstract Expressionist Helen Frankenhaler was announced (b 1928 Manhattan USA). The artist was 83 years old when she died at her home in Darien Conn. Frankenhaler, influenced by Pollock poured thinned oil paint which was diluted with turpentine directly onto canvas to achieve lyrical use of colour (her ‘soak stain’ technique). This technique, which was adopted by Pollock, Morris Louis (1912–1962), and Kenneth Noland (1924–2010 )helped lead and paved the way for a newer generation of abstract painting which became known as Color Field painting. Like Pollock, Frankenhaler also worked on the floor pouring diluted paint onto the canvas and allowing it to soak through to produce the illusionistic stains.

Mountain and Sky

Her work was included in the 1964 exhibition Post Painterly Abstraction, which was curated by the critic Clement Greenberg who promoted Abstract Expressionism. Frankenhaler’s work has been exhibited over 6 decades (1950s onwards) and has had several retrospectives. She is also one of the artists I originally referenced when I first conceived the Echostains project in 2002. This year sees the 10th anniversary of my project which has just grown and grown! More news of this later in the year.

Poetree

From Frankenhaler’s legacy to a rather curious and anonymous ‘gift’ which caught my imagination. Last year in an Edinburgh library, a series of sculptures began to appear. The first sculpture, placed on a table in the Scottish Poetry Library was most appropriately carved from paper, mounted on a book and bore a tag with the library’s Twitter account number on @byleaveswelive This is what it said;-

It started with your name @byleaveswelive and became a tree.… … We know that a library is so much more than a building full of books… a book is so much more than pages full of words.… This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas….. a gesture (poetic maybe?)

Next to the Poetree sat a paper egg with a scattering of words which when put together made up the sentence “A Trace of Wings’ by Edwin Morgan (see here) Despite local news coverage, no information has been found about the maker of the work.

Then in June 2011, another paper sculpture was received, the donor this time chose The National Scottish Library as it’s recipient. The sculpture is in the form of a gramophone and a coffin and is sculpted from a copy of Ian Rankin’s ‘Exit Music’ The tag reads;-

For @natlibscot – A gift in support of libraries, books, words, ideas….. (& against their exit)

In these days of Kindle (smacks of Orwell’s 1984 to me) nothing beats the tactile thrill of holding, caressing, smelling, – the physical page turning, the owning of and even the dog earing of the physical object of a BOOK. A physical object that holds so much of our dreams, imagination and is our portal to another world. It’s wonderful that these paper sculptures should pay homage to this – long may they keep popping up!

Musician,artist and printmaker Ronnie Wood, who plays with the Rolling Stones (and has also played with The Faces, and the Jeff Beck Group) trained at Ealing Art College. His new exhibition, called ‘Time and Places’ will showcase 100 pieces of his work, including paintings of Jimi Hendrix, Slash and portraits of friends and family. It shall run 7 – 12th November Cork Street, Mayfair. London. Wood had this to say about his work:-

“People don’t know that I’m an artist. Playing music as part of a team effort is wonderful, but to express individuality as an artist is very personal. Art is more powerful, a more personal statement.”

Creativity is creativity, but I take his point about personal expression and the need for own space to indulge this. A group of artists can all bounce off each other and feed off ideas, each with their individual interpretation, – the inner journey must be solitary though.

Meanwhile, it’s nearly that time again. No not Bonfire night – The Annual Turner Prize is nearly upon us. love it or hate it, The Turner Prize has attracted controversy since it began back in 1984 to celebrate new developments in contemporary art. Contenders have to have had outstanding exhibitions – and be under 50.

This year the exhibition will be held in the wonder BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Arts Gateshead. This is a wonderful venue – a large and airy space which used to be an old flour mill (see my review of this arts centre from when we visited – here) The contenders for the Turner Prize this year are;-

Karla Black

The BALTIC

Martin Boyce
Hilary Lloyd
George Shaw

I shall be reviewing the other contenders in a later post, but my attention was drawn to the strange media of artist Karla Black – obviously a person after my heart where diverse media is concerned. Whilst I have ground soft pastels mixed with polyfiller, and have flirted with latex, recycled acrylic scraps, Black uses crushed bath bombs (must smell wonderful!) foodstuffs and even medicines to make her sculptures. Heavily influenced by psychoanalysis, she states;-

‘While there are ideas about psychological and emotional developmental processes held within the sculptures I make, the things themselves are actual physical explorations into thinking, feeling, communicating and relating’.

There’s a good review of this artist, image from here If you want to see some of my painterly ‘recipes’ please look in my Categories MY SURFACES. Here’s one I did earlier ‘Brown Sauce meets Latex’

This TV built 1936 was still going in 2009 please read the link below

Age is a dichotomy in many ways,on the one hand, nothing much surprises me any more – yet on the other there is still a yearning to believe in somethings and I still feel a childlike disappointment when they turn out to be wrong. For instance, I find it very very difficult to believe that television is 75 years old today! It seems only yesterday when I was told to see if there was any mail, went downstairs and saw a television showing a children’s programme in black and white. I had never seen a television before – so you can imagine…. I was watching Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men – and they spoke my language 🙂 Bill and Ben, along with Andy Pandy, The Woodentops and many more were part of the Watch with Mother series. BBC Watch with Mother ran from 1952 – about 1965 when it was replaced by other children’s programmes like Camberwick Green, Pogles Wood and Trumpton. Here’s a very early episode from Bill and Ben (Thanks to graemefield01) :-

Also in the news is the famous Little Dancer, the bronze ballerina made

The Little Dancer

by French Impressionist Edgar Degas. The bronze sculpture, stands 40 inches in height and wearing a silk hair ribbon and satin tutu failed to sell at Christie’s New York. The ‘Little Dancer aged 14’ had a pre sale estimate of between $25 million to $35 million. Degas’s heirs had 28 bronzes cast from the original which was made from tinted wax. Whilst I find it difficult to believe that there was no buyer for such an iconic work – on the other hand, the price tag is a bit on the high side…..

Whilst the ‘Little Dancer’ is at least a bronze, Jackson Pollock’s No.5 1948 painting sold at for $140 million in a private sale in 2006. The painting measures 8ft x 4ft and is on a sheet of fibreboard. Quality versus quantity? Not necessarily – take a look at the rest of the worlds most expensive paintings here. Perhaps, in the end, a painting is only worth the price someone is willing to pay for it?

If you have been reading this blog (and I can only wonder at your forbearance and tenacity if you have and thank you for it) you will know that I include all sorts of artistic expression. I see art everywhere. One aspect that I have yet to mention on Echostains up until now is the art of the caricaturist.

Loo in the kitchen Cruickshank

George Cruikshank’s art was the equivalent to a newspaper headline you would see today – usually scandalous! People complain about the intrusion of the paparazzi, but fame has always been a double-edged sword and the newspaper machine – a many-headed hydra. George Cruickshank (b. London 1792 – 1878) was an illustrator and caricaturist with considerable talent and was one of the leading caricaturists of the 1790s. His work employs a descriptive narrative similar to William Hogarth including prints, plates and illustrations. He also illustrated some of the plates for some Charles Dickens books.

Fagin in his cell Cruickshank

His early work focused on caracturising English life for social publications, but he gained a lot of interest from caracturising the Royal family and the leading politicians of the time. He even received a Royal bribe in 1720 not to lampoon the King George IV in any ‘immoral situation’ he may be in (he must have made a tidy sum as there were many.)

James Gillray an earlier caricaturist was one of Cruikshank’s influences and joined forces with him and Thomas Rowlandson (another Satirical artist) to develop a personification of England – John Bull in 1790

Cruikshank’s material came from social events, especially wars abroad and political parties, though he appears to be impartial to Tory Whigs and Radicals and satirised them all. He illustrated ‘Sketches by Boz’ 1836, ‘The Mudfrog Papers’ 1837 – 1838 and ‘Oliver Twist’ 1838 all by Charles Dickens.

Snuffing out Boney by Cruickshank

He created controversy in 1871 with a letter to The Times where he claimed credit for a lot of the plot in Oliver Twist. This spoiled his friendship with Dickens. In the 1840s Cruikshank work became moore focused on book illustration. He became obsessed with Temperance and was a staunch anti smoker illustrating work for the National Temperance Society.

Crinoline Parody Cruickshank

Cruikshank was a complicated man with a scandalous personal life (upon his death, it was revealed that he had 11 illegitimate children with a mistress) Yet he still managed to produce nearly 10,000 prints, plates and illustrations, get buried in St Paul’s Cathedral. His work can be seen in the Victoria and Albert and the British Museum.

The Jerwood Visual Arts and Drawing projects UK has awarded First Prize in the Drawing Exhibition to Essex artist Gary Lawrence. His large-scale drawing ‘Homage to Anonymous’ – a tribute to all anonymous artists, is drawn on the back of discarded posters using a ballpoint pen. The work is dedicated to all artists who made work but went unrecognised and will be shown at JVA at Jerwood Space, London from 14 September – 30 October 2011. This what the artist says about this work-‘Homage to Anonymous began in 2010 as a simple view of Pothea (the main town on the Greek island of Kalymnos) where I went on holiday. While working on it, I began thinking of other artist’s views of towns, especially El Greco’s View and Plan of Toledo (1608-14). While checking my El Greco book, I saw View of Candia (Litta di Candia) (1582) and View of Toledo (1582), both drawings which I initially thought to be by El Greco. (Candia, I found out, is Herak Lion, Capital of Crete, El Greco’s island of birth). All these historical references, plus my own holiday snapshots of Kalymnos, were combined over many months to finish the drawing in June 2011.’

I quite like the way that this work has grown from conception to its evolution. Sometimes in art, the original idea with which you set out with is lost or changes to such an extent that you can’t remember what beginning actually was. All you need is the spark, I think. Without the spark or the germ of the idea you can’t really make a beginning. Another observation I have made is the problem solving aspect of art. You have the concept, then you try to execute your idea. You realise that this isn’t working – it’s not quite what you wanted to say, so it’s back to the drawing board (so to speak). Sometimes, just sometimes, the real journey, the finding of a way is actually more interesting than the finished piece in my own personal experience. More about this exhibition here

Jakub by Jan Mikulka

Here’s Czech artist 31 years old Jan Mikula whose oil painting of his lifelong friend is so life-like it looks like a photograph. The artist is said to have wanted to capture his lifelong friend JakubWagner ‘sensitive nature at a short distance’.

There’s no doubt about the artists skill here, and the finished painting is aesthetically pleasing to me – so therefore it’s a success so I shouldn’t be looking for more from this painting – yet I am and I can’t pinpoint what it could be. I prefer this portrait of a woman for her air of mystery and truth. For me, it’s what you don’t see – what is hinted at which creates the interest. Please take a look at the artist’s website here which is full of fantastic paintings and prepare to be enraptured!

Portrait of a woman by Jan Mikulka

With the advent of the first camera (first permanent photograph 1822) artists were outraged and believed that photography would destroy art and the portrait artist’s livelihood. But as you can see from this artist and other photo realists like Chuck Close this has been reversed – art is now imitating photography and blurring the boundaries. Read more about this painting and the artist here who won the Visitors Choice at the British Portrait Exhibition 16th June – 4 September 2011 with Jakub. To see who won the BP Portrait awards clickhere

Belated birthdays The candles have long been blown out on these artists birthdays, but as a way of catching up with my posts they provide a good excuse to write! August 11th saw the birthday of American realist artist George Bellows (b 1882 – 1925) (though there seems to be some discrepancy on his August birthdate according to Wikipedia)George Wesley Bellows attended Ohio State University from 1901 – 1904 . He played baseball and painted illustrations for magazines whilst studying there. In 1904 he became a student of Robert Henri at the New York School of Art becoming one of Henri’s ‘Eight’ and becoming associated with a group of artists who at that time were painting American society in a modern down to earth, kitchen sink manner. This group came to be known as the Ashcan School.

Pennsylvania Station George Bellows

When Henri organised an exhibition featuring mostly urban studies in 1908, Bellows became more interested in pursuing a career as a painter. He was to prove successful and became very famous and nationally recognised. His work typically depicts rough working class people and chaos are have lots of atmosphere. The artist is mostly known for his boxing scenes which are laden with movement and rough brushstrokes.

The artist received many commissions from the social elite of New York. Socially conscious Bellows also became associated with the ‘Lyrical Left’ group of artists. He taught and contributed drawings and prints to the socialist journal ‘The Masses’. A lot has been written about this interesting artist’s life. There’s also a wonderful article about him and his work by Jonathan Jones, The Guardian here

A couple of weeks ago the British newspapers have been full of reports about the riots and looting which has gone on in the UK. In Los Angeles yet another art masterpiece has been looted from a private art exhibit at the Ritz Carlton Marina del Rey whilst the curator was distracted by a well planned diversion. The work is believed to be The Judgement by 17th century Dutch artist Rembrandt Van Rijn is estimated to be worth $250,000. The good news about the painting is that it has been recovered a few days later in a church in San Fernando Valley after an anonymous tip-off. Read about it here

But, back to today and today is American Dadaist and Surrealist artist Emmanuel Radnitzsky, better known as Manray (b. 1890 – 1970) The wonderful ManRay trust website can be found here http://www.manraytrust.com/ A earlier post of mine which celebrates the artist’s birthday can be found here Manray is esteemed in the art world for his avant-garde photography – especially renown for his fashion and portrait work, though he regarded himself as a painter above all. Manray is still a very well regarded and influential artist even now.